4 Stylish 2014 Home Decor Trends on Show at Bernhardt

TREND #1: Roaring 20s Art Deco Infused Glamour

The moodboard above depicts fashion, beauty, jewelry and societal nostalgia for the glamorous and luxurious days of the Jazz Age. Hemlines were on the rise, Victorian and Art Nouveau decorations were being ushered out and replaced with the opulence of the Art Deco age. Gone were the chintz, the overstuffed sofas, the dark, somber woods, heavy tapestries, and in their place people were decorating their homes with furniture and decor that mirrored this new era of liberation, innovation and excitement.

Furniture with modern, clean lines, luxe finishes, unabashed romance and glamour that hearken back to the Art Deco style of the roaring 20s has been experiencing a style revival over the last few years, and I’ve noticed that design direction continues to gain strength. At the 2013 fall High Point Furniture market, I was invited to a fabulous guided tour of the Bernhardt showroom, led by Bernhardt’s Creative Director, Ron Fiore – who is responsible, along with Bernhardt’s CEO Alex Bernhardt Jr. and a creative team, for not only conceptualizing design collections for Bernhardt, but for bringing those designs to life in the most beautifully styled and evocative room vignettes that narrate lifestyles influenced by travel, art, architecture, fashion, nature and history.

As we toured the 80,000 square foot showroom, I was captivated by several very luxurious furniture collections which perfectly captured the Art Deco infused glamour that was one of the hallmarks of 1920s design. One such vignette that I was enamored with is shown in the photo above. This living room encapsulates the pure timeless elegance and the sublime opulence of the “1920s Glamour” design trend.

One of my favorite pieces from this room is the sophisticated Meredith Chair from the Everyday Glamour collection, and I’ve learned that this beautiful chair also caught the attention of style maven, interior designer and High Point Style Spotter, Stacy Naquin who added this beauty to her Style Spotted list, and designer Leslie Hendrix Wood of the popular and award-winning design blog Hadley Court who shared that this chair is a, “timeless classic”.

TREND #2: Romantic & Elegant Style Inspired by French Antiques

French elegance and romanticism has never really been out of vogue. It has an enduring and endearing hold on countless women, myself included. I must confess that being in the presence of French antiques from the 18th, 19th and early 20th century set my romantic, little heart aflutter. But as with all fashion, style can be fickle, and for some time beautiful French style has been overlooked for more “au courant” contemporary designs. But, I can confidently say, the signals for a French style renaissance are strong. And, more happily, I can report that the style direction is composed of a beautiful design mix of furniture influenced by French antiques from various periods in French history as noted in the moodboard above.

So you can just imagine my delight when I was presented with Bernhardt’s Chateau Chic collection – it embodies the very essence of the French Elegance trend. There were so many pieces I loved, as was also the case with almost everything I saw in the showroom, but since I’m limited in space here, I had to force myself to pick just one piece to share (Don’t fret I will be creating a Pinterest board to host all my divine decor discoveries at Bernhardt!) and that piece turned out to be the glorious Auberge Poster Bed (shown in photo above).

TREND #3: Nuanced & Sophisticated Shades of Gray

There’s a certain, almost inexplicable, comfort that the color gray possesses. Perhaps it is due to its unequaled level of neutralness – every other color works harmoniously with gray. It’s not too bright as white can tend to be or so completely dark, and endless as black can be. Fortunately, we will be seeing more of this soothing color in 2014. Pantone has declared the following tonal grays for 2014 home interiors: Blanc de Blanc, Gardenia, Opal Gray, Silver, Grisaille, Forged Iron, Satellite and Anthracite. It’s a spectrum of gorgeous grays as illustrated in the color moodboard above.

In the Bernhardt showroom there was one living room vignette that caught my eye as it was dressed in layers of gray from warm grays to cool grays, from lighter grays to darker grays – a very monochromatic color palette, but one that had depth, warmth and appeal. One of my favorite pieces from this set was the debonair and elegantly tailored Fitzgerald sofa in gray (pictured on the right in photo above). The sofa’s lines are decidedly classic and very traditional in nature, but the gray, textured upholstery and the silver nailhead trim give the piece a very modern and sophisticated appearance.

Another wonderful design take away from this vignette was that I had learned an important design lesson – prior to seeing this room I would have shied away from designing an entire room with gray as such a prominent color player, but seeing how beautifully executed and color balanced this particular design was, truly opened me to the potential of decorating fearlessly with grays.

The color and decorating moodboard above illustrates the 2014 color trend inspired by the traditional blue and white hued porcelain, ceramics and mosaics from Holland, Portugal, China and Japan. The fashion world, long the harbinger of home trends to come, has embraced this contrasting color movement with complete abandon. From Carolina Herrera to Valentino, runways were awash with striking blue and white color combinations. Of course, this traditional color scheme is rooted in history and is not at all new, but it is now seeing a beautiful resurgence in home decor. Dutch lighting designer Jacco Maris’ Montone chandelier in Delft (pictured in upper right hand corner) and the striking, geometric blue and white Ankara cocktail table (shown below) from Bernhardt’s Traditional with an Edge collection demonstrate the interpretation of this beautiful color direction for the home.

The Ankara table was also one of several furniture pieces from Bernhardt to be honored with the coveted High Point Style Spotters award. My lovely friend, designer and multi-award winning Style Spotter, Michelle Jennings-Wiebe remarked that this cocktail table had, “sexy, exquisite detailing,” and I completely agree.

Disclosure: All opinions expressed in this post are all my own. Bernhardt is a sponsor of The Decorating Diva, LLC.